Yes, CS5 is out! It looks like a phenomenal release, and we have full coverage – including new products, pricing, configurations, system reqs, videos, “what’s new” feature lists, and more:

• Creative Suite 5 Product Overview  
• CS5 Full Product Configuration Matrix
• CS5 Complete System Requirements
• CS5 Pricing for Commercial and Education
• What’s New in Photoshop CS5  
• What’s New in Dreamweaver CS5  
• What’s New in Illustrator CS5  
• What’s New in InDesign CS5  
• What’s New in Flash Pro CS5  
• All About New Flash Catalyst CS5  
• What’s New in Contribute CS5
• What’s New in Premiere Pro CS5  
• What’s New in After Effects CS5  

ALL CS5 products are immediately available for purchase and instant download, with free shipping on all Adobe orders over €500/£350 in Europe and the U.K. (no coupon or promo code is required)…

On Adobe’s site: If you’re considering upgrading from your current software, here’s a helpful upgrade guide. Also new is an excellent FAQ covering purchasing policies and key product changes… The online documentation for all CS5 products also just went up.

Lastly and importantly, the CS5 free trial downloads and Student and Teacher Editions
(up to 80% off) are also now available!

[UPDATE (May 13th) – Adobe CS5 is now shipping and downloadable in 16 languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Russian, and Korean.]

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• Jump in with Free Adobe CS5 Deep Dive Product Sessions
• Adobe Working on New Release of Creative Suite 5 (CS5.3? CS5.5?)

[UPDATE (May 2012) – These links still work!  If not, then use instead the direct download links for the original CS5 trials, the CS5.5 trials, or the brand new Creative Suite 6 trials...]

Click to immediately download whichever you like, from Photoshop CS5 to Master Collection!
All CS5 trials are fully functional for thirty days and can run side-by-side on your system with older versions, without interference. The Windows or Mac downloads can be installed on multiple computers if desired – and if and when you are ready to buy, you can easily convert your trial to permanent unrestricted use without reinstalling the software in most cases:

Note there is a single trial download for Photoshop – it’s Photoshop CS5 Extended, which includes the Standard version. You decide which you wish to activate at the time of purchase.* The same thing goes for CS5 Design Premium and Design Standard – you get the bigger one and choose later. Also, the trials for the suites do not bundle Acrobat 9 Pro – so it must be downloaded separately.

If you’re upgrading to CS5, you can install a trial and then buy an upgrade to convert your trial into a purchased version. What’s more, a single CS5 purchase may entitle you to install and activate the software on two systems with certain restrictions. No serial number is needed to download or run the trials. For more information on these and other questions, refer to the full CS5 Trial FAQ.

See also: The complete CS5 Product Matrix, CS5 Price Sheet & CS5 System Requirements.

* Note that for Adobe’s Education (Student and Teacher) Editions, there is only one version of Photoshop offered or available – the top-of-the-line Photoshop CS5 Extended. The good news is you’re getting up to 80% off the regular price!

[UPDATE (May 2012) – If you prefer you can use the direct download links for CS6.]

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[Now updated for CS 5.5...  Also find out more on the complete differences from CS5.]

One of the most common upgrade questions we see out there is asking what’s new, what’s different, what’s better, what’s changed between Adobe CS5.5 and CS5 or CS4? Or more fundamentally, what are the key new features in CS5.5, versus earlier versions, even CS3?

Creative Suite 5 contains hundreds of new or enhanced features and func­tions across the 13 point products that comprise it. So the easiest way to look at it is by major product… For example, Photoshop CS5 Extended con­tains 18 new features that CS4 didn’t have, plus a further 14 more that have been enhanced. The numbers are similar for other products and even greater over CS3 of course – although generally speaking CS5 has significantly more improvements and innovation compared to CS4 than CS4 had over CS3.

Creative Suite 4 was certainly a capable release (we used it here every day), but some folks have com­mented that CS5 is really the release they wanted when CS4 came out and that CS5 is a game-changer over both previous versions… On that account, we haven’t seen a bad review of CS5 yet.

Creative Suite 5.5 adds further to this with significant new features and enhancements in the areas of mobile, publishing, HTML5, video, audio, and Flash…  Read our full release guide for CS5.5, or find out even when CS6 is due.

So here they are, the breakouts by individual product – the CS5.5 vs. CS5 vs. CS4 vs. CS3 version comparisons:

See also our new focused comparison of CS5 vs. CS5.5, including specific details on all the new features added.

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• Get Your Upgrade to Adobe CS5.5 for 20% Less – Limited Promotion

We’ve covered AdobeTV before, but it just keeps getting bigger and better… They’ve just issued a large series of free new video tutorials for every CS5 point product. You can learn the basics with Getting Started overviews and New Features re­views by product experts, over 17 hours in all. And if you want to get started today, you can go ahead and down­load a 30-day free trial for any CS5 product and begin getting trained…

Here’s how it breaks out:

The extensive how-to series of tips, tricks, and techniques was produced by the well-regarded Lynda.com in partnership with Adobe.

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Productivity

CS5 brings quantifiable efficiency to users (see just-released benchmarks) through its optimi­zation for the latest hardware and operating systems and its focus on reducing common prod­uction tasks from days to hours and from hours to a few mouse clicks. For example, CS5 users can work up to 10X faster with large Photoshop images, get jaw-dropping video-editing speed, and perform numerous work­flow-specific production tasks in a fraction of the time.

Differentiation

CS5 introduces rich new creativity features for print, web, interactive, mobile, and video professionals to produce compelling content and stories that make brands stand out in a crowded marketplace. For example, companies can incorporate cutting-edge 3D objects and motion graphics into their creative thanks to new Repoussé technology in Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended.

Reach

CS5 helps you capitalize on the pervasiveness of the Flash platform and the latest digital publishing trends to better reach, retain, and deliver value to customers wherever they are. For example, CS5 enables you to prepare content for the latest mobile devices such as the Apple iPad, Google Android, RIM Blackberry, Amazon Kindle, Sony eBook Reader, and Barnes & Noble nook.

Optimization

CS5 introduces integration with Omniture web analytics for closely tracking ROI and fine-tun­ing the spend in an enterprise digital strategy. Current Omniture customer can adopt CS5 to streamline and control costs in A/B testing and allow designers and developers to instrument Flash content directly within their creative workflows without manual tagging. And long-term CS users can add Omniture analytics to an effective digital strategy (requires separate investment in Omniture tools as well as in CS5).

Innovative Industry Leadership

Only Adobe CS5 offers comprehensive, industry-leading tools for print, web, interactive, mo­bile, video, and application development – all of the touchpoints in an effective digital strategy. The tight integration among these tools enables teams to share assets and collaborate more effectively across disciplines. Adobe CS5 continues Adobe’s long history of innovative solutions that address pressing business needs.

For over a dozen more reasons to upgrade, see this page.

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 ◊ Photoshop CS5 delivers exceptional power and creative control with the next generation of advanced tools for outstanding image manipulation and superior compositing. It redefines image editing with a strong focus on photography, including breakthrough selection capabi­lities, content-aware fill options, state-of-the-art processing of raw images, advanced creation of High Dynamic Range (HDR) imagery, automated lens corrections, puppet warp technology, extraordinary new painting effects, and a sweeping range of workflow and performance enhancements that boost productivity.

 ◊ Photoshop CS5 Extended takes it even further, as a superset of tools and features made for professionals who want to push the boundaries of digital imaging. It delivers all the editing, compositing, and painting capabilities of Photoshop CS5 plus powerful new features for creat­ing stunning 3D artwork from selections, graphics, and type with direct control over lighting, materials, and meshes. See the complete differences between Standard vs. Extended.

And here’s what the reviewers have to say about it:

“When was the last time software changed the way you think and see? Photoshop CS5 will.”
  — John Paul Caponigro, photographer

“Each new version of Photoshop has included many exciting enhancements, but Photoshop CS5 is the most amazing technological jump I’ve seen since I started using the software.”
  — Ira Block, Ira Block Photography

“The Content-Aware Fill feature in Photoshop CS5 got a wow from me when I first used it. It is very good at replacing areas where you would otherwise need to use more strokes and time to clone or heal out a distracting element in a photograph.”
  — Dianne Taylor-Misztela, TM Photo

“The new Puppet Warp feature in Photoshop CS5 will be a great tool for making adjustments that so many times are needed to make images look more realistic than reality – like small changes in the position of arms and legs. This tool has a great potential within all compositing work and is a great complement to the Liquify and Transform tools.”
  — Jann Lipka, photographer

“The Edge Detection controls in Photoshop CS5 are at least twice as fast as the old tricks we used to use to remove an object from one background and place it on another. We can quickly make selections and then move on to the more creative work that our clients expect. This is Photoshop at its best!”
  — Francisco Camberos, The Visionaire Group

“Content Aware Fill in Photoshop CS5 will save you hours, if not days, of retouching. It might even change the way you think about composing your images.”
  — John Paul Caponigro, photographer

“Adobe has always had the best 32-bit merging capabilities with the ability to merge raw files. With HDR Pro in Photoshop CS5, Adobe knocks it out of the park with really smart, anti-­ghost­ing and auto-­alignment technology.”
  — Colin Smith, founder, PhotoshopCAFE

“Seeing the new capabilities of Photoshop CS5 software had me immediately thinking about what I can do with them. New features like Puppet Warp and Content-Aware Fill make things that are difficult for me easy, and things that were impossible possible!”
  — Stephen Marc, photographer

“The new Mixer Brush in Photoshop CS5 is a welcome advancement in the simulation of painterly brushwork. Expressive digital natural-media tools are quickly becoming an adjunct to photographic imagery, enabling a new visual vocabulary. Combined with the expert control over photographic imagery in Photoshop, the effect is like dipping your paintbrush into a photograph.”
  — John Derry, photographer

“The Bristle Tips feature in Photoshop CS5 and the Bristle Brush tool in Illustrator CS5 will make an immediate impact on the design world. Without a doubt, the amazing new brush stroke effects they create will be a staple in both student portfolios and the advertising industry.”
  — Kevin McMahon, graphic design and video production teacher

“Adobe Repoussé in Photoshop CS5 Extended will make my life so much easier, especially when I need to mix 3D elements with my 2D workflow. I can create 3D objects and 3D text inside Photoshop CS5 Extended using Adobe Repoussé instead of having to import artwork from a 3D application or emulate the effect using perspectives and vanishing points. This will save me so much time and help me add unique 3D elements to my work.”
  — Fabio Sasso, Zee Design

“Adobe clearly knows where the future is going in terms of 3D integration into a graphic designer’s workflow. With Adobe Repoussé in Photoshop CS5 Extended, graphic designers who make their money creating 2D logos can extend their capabilities to include transforming logo art into 3D objects for web and print, making them more valuable to their clients.”
  — Stephen Burns, Chromeallusion.com

“Whenever I’m photographing interiors, I’m always backed into a corner wishing I had another ten feet to work with. The new Lens Correction features in Photoshop CS5 provide me that extra perspective and allow me to present an image the way I saw it, not just the way the camera captured it.”
  — LaNola Stone, photographer

“Sending high resolution images over e-mail is always challenging. Adobe CS Review in Photoshop CS5 is incredibly helpful because I can look at images with my clients in real time – even in the middle of a shoot – so my clients get the shots they want every time.”
  — Theresa Raffetto, photographer

“The benefits of the customer-inspired productivity enhancements in Photoshop CS5 are exponential. Saving time adds up like compounding interest, and each time-saver yields a more efficient workflow, which yields more productivity, which ultimately yields better imagery and better business.”
  — Jerome Ferraro, photographer

Read more:

• Reviews and awards from the press (Editors’ Choice Awards)
• Reviews from everyday Photoshop users (4.9 out of 5 stars total)

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[UPDATE (April 2012) – The same two applications mentioned below remain 64-bit only for CS6.]

[UPDATE (April 2011) – See also the top questions answered for new CS5.5!]

Last week there was an online Q&A session called “Ask a CS Pro,” where we got news on when CS5 would be released. The session with Adobe Evangelists Terry White, Greg Rewis, and Jason Levine lasted over an hour and there were a lot of other great questions address­ed. Here are some:

What other questions do you have about CS5? Just ask in the comments below and we’ll see if we can get them answered quickly for you.

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While HTML5 and CSS3 won’t be finalized for some time, this extension provides initial support in Dreamweaver CS5 for a set of currently-implemented functions, helping you easily create HTML5 pages and CSS3 styles. It introduces great features like multiscreen preview (which lets you see what your web page will look like on phones, tablets, and desktop computers simultaneously within Dreamweaver), HTML5 and CSS3 code hinting, video and audio tag support in Live View, and even a few HTML5-compliant starter layouts to get you up and running with HTML5 layouts quickly.

If you’ve been tuned into the technology news lately, you’ll know these sorts of improvements mark a great advance for Dreamweaver users working in this fast-changing world of smart­phones and other portable devices. Although their specifications are still being finalized, HTML5 and CSS3 can be used with any browser that currently supports them. The most recent ver­sions of the leading browsers (Safari, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Chrome) support at least some (a few support many) HTML5 and CSS3 features.

Here’s a complete list of available resources for these new capabilities, available immediately:

• Download: Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 HTML5 Pack
• Article: Using the HTML5 Pack for Dreamweaver CS5
• Discussion Forum: The Dreamweaver CS5 HTML5 Pack
• Demo Video:

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But does the real feature live up to its advance billing?

While it’s not perfect and doesn’t always do what you hope or imagine (after all, it’s still just a computer), generally in practice it still does amazingly well – and often unbelievably so. And we have a handful of new videos here to illustrate, thanks to Terry White and Russell Brown. The tips and techniques shared below will help you get the most out of this capability.

The first video covers the best new features in Photoshop CS5 generally, including three great examples of Content-Aware Fill in action… The second, to the right, introduces the concept of Content-Aware Rotation – magically filling in the missing parts to the background of a rotated image with Content-Aware Fill. The third one develops the technique of Wire Removal with Content-Aware Healing – easily removing unwanted lines and wires from your images. And the last video shows how to create Content-Aware Patterns – discovering creative ways to accurately control, and create, patterns with Content-Aware Fill.

For full-screen viewing, click the expand icon and then 480p after pressing play on each thumbnail:

See reviews of Content-Aware Fill and other aspects of Photoshop CS5… Or for more great videos on new features in Creative Suite 5, check out www.cs5.tv

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OK, so your old computer is running out of gas, you’re upgrading or changing systems, adding a new machine, or switching from a PC to a Mac, or vice versa — and you want to move over your purchased CS6 (or CS5.5 or CS5 or CS4 or CS3 or any other) Adobe software — what do you do, and how do you do it?

As we’ve covered previously here, you are generally allowed to install and activate most Adobe software on up to two computers, with the restriction that the software can not used on both systems at the same time. So right off the bat, you might be good to go with installing the software on a second computer, although you may wish to double-check the licensing agreement for your product to be sure.

Adobe uses software activation to control how many simultaneous computers can install or run CS6 at once. So if you’re already at your limit of two computers and want to transfer your license over to a new or different system, then you first need to deactivate the software from the old computer. In the program, click Help > Deactivate, and then follow the instructions in the wizard to deactivate the software. If you have installed a suite product, you will be deact­ivating the entire suite by deactivating any one of the point products included in that suite.

Note: There are two choices on the Deactivation screen – so what’s the difference between Suspend Activation vs. Deactivate Permanently? The answer is that both will properly deactivate your product on that computer. But the first (“suspend”) will keep your serial number stored in the Windows registry just in case you ever want to quickly reactivate the same software on the same computer later, without having to reenter it. However there is no harm in choosing the second (“permanently”) option, because you can always later reactivate the same product on the same machine by just retyping the license key. In other words, it’s basically a conven­ience factor to store your SN.

If you’re uninstalling Adobe software from a computer, then deactivate it first to ensure its license is freed up. If you deactivate but don’t uninstall, the next time you run Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, InDesign, Acrobat, or any of the other CS6 applications on that computer, you’ll be asked for a serial number or to start a 30-day free tryout period.

After uninstalling any version of CS, you can run the Creative Suite Cleaner Tool if you like to make sure it’s completely removed from your system.

If you purchased the software but lost the serial number or no longer have it readily available, the first place to check is your online Adobe account. You will have one if you ever registered the software, or if you purchased it directly from Adobe… Just log in with your Adobe ID and all your serial numbers will be listed there.  If you don’t see it, then try registering your product now and see if it appears there. As a last resort, you may be able to retrieve it from the computer itself using a free utility like Belarc Advisor (Windows) or Product Key Finder (Mac) – which will recover and tell you the activation keys for the programs on your system.

And if you’ve lost or can’t find your original installation file or discs/DVDs, you can download and install a free trial of your application from Adobe servers onto your new computer, and that will convert to a full and permanent version when you enter your valid SN.

OK, once deactivation is complete, you are free to go ahead and enter your serial number key to activate a copy of the software installed elsewhere, or use it to reactivate the same applica­tion on that PC after reinstalling (for example, if you are changing disk drives, or upgrading operating systems from XP or Vista to Windows 7, etc.).  And you should be all set.

If you run into any problems with the deactivation/reactivation process, you’ll have a 30-day window during which the software will work in trial mode to give you enough time to contact Adobe Support and get things resolved.

How to Switch Platforms from PC to Mac

Now how about if you’re also changing platforms, like from Windows to Mac, or vice versa – and want to take your Creative Suite 6 license with you, and/or upgrade from CS3, CS4, CS5 or CS5.5 to CS6 while making the switch? After completing the deactivation process above it gets a little more complicated, because most Adobe software is licensed for a single platform only. But you can do what’s called a “crossgrade” from one to the other natively, which is no charge to you (except nominal shipping costs) and can be submitted online through Adobe Customer Service.

All product configurations (including Student and Teacher Editions) are eligible for exchange.

There are a few provisos. One is you need to have a registered serial number to qualify (but that just takes a few minutes if you haven’t already). You must also be prepared to delete the existing software from your computer and destroy any existing copies, as they will no longer be valid. But perhaps the most important is you can’t cross-grade from an older version to the same prior version — you can only move to the current version (now CS6), paying any appli­cable upgrade costs…  If you’re already running the latest release, then there should be no additional cost.

So if you need to do both an upgrade and a platform swap, the fastest and easiest way is to first buy the upgrade online and then submit the crossgrade online. Then you can simply download and run the 30-day free trial while you’re waiting for the new box and serial number to arrive – and then later just convert the trial into a permanent full version with the license key for your new platform.

NOTE: Aside from crossgrades, there is one other option if you own computers with both types of operating systems and need to run on both Mac OS and Windows – see how.

Of course, if you purchased CS6 within the past 30 days and got the incorrect platform or language version of your product, then it’s even simpler – just return the software and get the right one instead.

How to Change from One Language to Another

Note that this same procedure will also work for requesting a change from one language set to another for a given Adobe/CS6 application… Just follow the crossgrade procedure described above – but choose a new and different language on the form, instead of a different platform.

After swapping platforms or languages, you cannot cross back to your original platform or language version. No more than five total (lifetime) cross-platform or cross-language upgrades or swaps are allowed per customer, regardless of the product. Products purchased second-hand or from an auction site such as eBay are not eligible for swaps.

Two notable exceptions are Adobe Lightroom 3 and Photoshop & Premiere Elements 9, which are now sold as multiplatform and multilanguage software so would not require a crossgrade.

Hopefully that should do it!  Please let us know if this article helped you out, or any questions you may have in the comments below.

If you’d like to move away from shuffling serial numbers altogether, check out an easy Adobe CS6 volume license to simplify management instead of single-user copies… For a lower cost, you can get a flexible site license with a single serial key for your entire team.

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With Adobe Creative Suite, if you’re just looking to set up and run CS6 on either a Windows PC or a Mac OS system, the instructions for that are easy. And in fact, as we discussed earlier, it’s relatively straightforward to install and activate the software on up to two machines of the same operating system type – in other words, either two Mac computers, or two Windows PC’s.

But in most cases, with the platform selection for Creative Suite and Acrobat products, it’s “either-or.” Either Apple or Microsoft. Either Mac or Windows. That’s the story for the retail and education versions of the software. And, if you want to change or swap platforms entirely, and move your tools from one o/s to the other, you can do that with an Adobe CS “crossgrade.”

However, there is another possibility if you want or need to have the applications available on both operating systems (Windows plus Mac OS) at the same time – and that is to get an Adobe volume license. Despite the name, anybody can buy them (not just businesses and even for just one copy), though they do offer discounts for larger purchases… and there are some additional advantages too (including the ability to order CS5 or CS5.5 instead of CS6, if that’s what you happen to need). They’re easy to get – no signature contracts are necessary and you can pay online with a credit card, and download right away.

These volume products are offered “multiplatform” and are supplied with two license keys – one for each operating system – allowing you to install the software on both platforms… Just select “Multiple Platforms” on the simple online order page, it’s right there. You can even upgrade to these licenses from most older versions, including standard retail and education editions – with the same discounted upgrade pricing for all. Here is the relevant section from Adobe’s volume licensing policies page:

Cross-platform licensing

Adobe Volume Licensing (AVL) customers receive product serial numbers for both Windows and Mac OS, as long as the product is available for both and the two platforms are the same version.

Program members can choose to use either platform, as long as the total number of licenses being used does not exceed the number purchased.

As we’ve covered previously, each license purchased from Adobe allows the user to install and activate the product on up to two computer systems, so long as they are not both used or run at the same time. These are the same terms as for all customers written in the Creative Suite licensing agreement.

As more Macs make their way into the world, and as more folks acquire and own or use both types of computers on their networks, the need for multi-platform usage will grow. Recently, Adobe has begun to offer some shrinkwrap retail software for universal use – most notably Photoshop Elements and Lightroom in their latest releases. Subscribers to the Creative Cloud can also install the tools on both a Mac and a PC. But, if this is what you need to do now with your permanent software licenses, then you may want to check this out…

If you happened to make a purchase recently and didn’t get what you needed, you may also know about Adobe’s 30-day Return & Exchange Policy.

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This is one of the most common questions we get, and the answer may pleasantly surprise you… The place to look to find the answer is the Software License Agreement, also called the EULA. This agreement governs the use of your Adobe product, and is translated into 28 languages within each document. It also covers some basics about product activation.

So, in general, how many systems can you install Adobe software on, including CS5.5 and CS6? The answer for individuals (as opposed to businesses) in most cases is two. The catch is that both computers must be used only by you and the two systems cannot be used at the same time. This policy was designed so that you could run (say) Creative Suite at home on your desktop PC, as well as while travelling with your laptop. But the types of computers and their usage has blurred so much now that you can just pick any two you own and the product should install and properly activate on both…

For example, here is the key text from the EULA for Photoshop CS6:

2.5 Portable or Home Computer Use. Subject to the important restrictions set forth in Section 2.6 [having to do with volume licensees], the primary user of the Computer on which the Software is installed … may install a second copy of the Software for his or her exclusive use on either a port­able Computer or a Computer located at his or her home, provided that the Software on the port­able or home Computer is not used at the same time as the Software on the primary Computer.

In other words, the primary user may install another copy on a secondary computer for their own use, but the two installations cannot be used simultaneously.  Generally, for Creative Suite and Adobe Acrobat, the two machines should also be of the same operating system (Windows/Mac), because the software is licensed and delivered for use on a specific platform – but anyone who gets a “business license” can run the applications on both platforms.  Subscribers to the Creative Cloud can also install the tools on both a Mac and a PC.  Other Adobe products like Photoshop Elements and Lightroom are always sold multi-platform, making it a bit easier to mix-and-match Windows and Mac OS for your two installations.

Importantly, Adobe defines a computer as “a virtual or physical device,” not just a CPU – so that encompasses running on virtualization platforms such as VMware, Citrix, Parallels, and VirtualBox. The same thing goes for a dual-boot system with a product installed on both partitions, including Apple Boot Camp.

Note that these policies work exactly the same for Adobe’s Education versions – there is no distinction for those…  However, one major difference in restrictions for the Student and Teacher Editions is they can be run only on the customer’s privately-owned computer(s).

So there’s your answer for most current Adobe software, although we recommend confirming the terms for your particular product or suite because the license agreements are somewhat different for each package (including Creative Suite, Acrobat, Lightroom, Elements, etc.) and version (CS3, CS4, CS5, CS5.5, CS6).

If you’re part of a company or business, and/or need more than one computer running the software at the same time, then you might want to take a look at the online discounts and ease of maintenance available through Adobe’s Volume Licensing Store. There you can save money, time, and headaches for multiple users.

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• Buy CS5 Now + Get Free Upgrade to CS6: Adobe Sets Grace Period
• Adobe CS6 Upgrade Policy Changes Postponed! CS3 & CS4 on Track

Adobe has just unveiled Creative Suite 6 – and one of the upgrade questions people are asking is what’s new, what’s different, what’s changed in CS6 as compared to previous version(s)? Adobe calls it, “a killer release with hundreds of new capabilities rolling up four focus areas: application performance, enhanced user interface, efficient development for multiple devices, and making previously impossible things possible.” So our job here is to give you a quick “cheat sheet” on top new features, to help you decide about upgrading…

CS6 updates almost all of the individual products from CS5, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash Pro, InDesign/InCopy, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, and Encore.  Learn more about all the new features added to each of these applications in detail, with our special coverage.

The CS5 tools not revisioned to CS6 are Flash Catalyst, Contribute, OnLocation, and Device Central.  Acrobat and Flash Builder are included but remain the same versions as before.

In addition there are two new applications introduced: Prelude CS6, a video ingest and logging tool to help tag and transcode footage rapidly, and SpeedGrade CS6, a professional color grading system that brings state-of-the-art color science to your video productions. These new tools are included in both the Production Premium and Master Collection suites.

With the spread of online content, Adobe found there was growing overlap in the customer base for the Design Premium and Web Premium suites, so they combined them both into one now called CS6 Design & Web Premium – which draws upon the tools of both editions. Design Standard’s collection remains “as is,” and rounds out the line-up.

As was disclosed previously, Adobe’s new design tools Edge and Muse will not be included within the Creative Suite, but sold separately.

For more information and details on Creative Suite 6 worldwide pricing, upgrade changes, availability, and system requirements, see our companion CS6 Launch Guide.

What’s New in CS6 vs. CS5? A New Feature Version Comparison

Here’s a quick run-through of some of the top new features in CS6 for major applications…

— Photoshop CS6: New modern user interface, Content-Aware move/patch/extend tools, new Camera Raw 7, background save and auto-recovery, Blur Gallery, redesigned vector and 3D engines, intuitive video editing, and many more.  [SEE COMPARISON]

— Illustrator CS6: Reengineered and streamlined user interface, fast Mercury Performance System for native 64-bit support on both Windows and Mac, new creative tools for pattern creation, image tracing, and gradients on strokes.  [SEE COMPARISON]

— InDesign CS6: Content Collector tools, hot-linked content across pages, integration with Digital Publishing Suite, Alternate Layout, Liquid Layout, other new tools efficiently adapt layouts to a myriad of page sizes, devices, and orientations.  [SEE COMPARISON]

— Dreamweaver CS6: Fluid grid layout for cross-platform design, CSS3 transitions, HTML5 code rendering with Live View and Multiscreen Preview, enhanced jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap Build framework support, optimized FTP performance.  [SEE COMPARISON]

— Fireworks CS6: New screen layout tools, jQuery Mobile theme skinning, CSS sprites from comps, CSS3 code extraction, improved color swatches, better redraw performance for Mac, improved memory management for Windows 64-bit systems.  [SEE COMPARISON]

— Flash Professional CS6: Sprite sheet generation, CreateJS toolkit to output HTML5, access to platform- and device-specific capabilities, prepackaged Adobe AIR captive runtimes, mobile application interaction simulation, support for the latest runtimes.  [SEE COMPARISON]

— Premiere Pro CS6: Sleek and professional user interface, uninterrupted playback, Warp Stabilizer effect, dynamic timeline trimming, expanded multicam editing, rolling shutter artifacts correction, adjustment layers, and many more.  [SEE COMPARISON]

— After Effects CS6: Global Performance Cache, 3D camera tracker, ray-traced text and shape extrusion, new variable mask feathering, rolling shutter repair, enhanced integration with Illustrator, new and updated effects, and many more.  [SEE COMPARISON]

— Audition CS6: Real-time clip stretching, pitch and speed control, CD burning, parameter automation, control surface support, automatic speech alignment, clip grouping with group suspend, tone generation, and many more.  [SEE COMPARISON]

— Encore CS6: 64-bit support for rock-solid performance, faster MPEG import with asynchro­nous processing.

— Prelude CS6: Full or partial ingest, tag footage with searchable temporal metadata, transcode to many formats, heads-up logging, rough cut creation, thumbnail scrubbing, speech transcription notes, success write confirmation, fully customizable.

— SpeedGrade CS6: Powerful layer-based color grading, GPU-accelerated performance, Lumetri Deep Color Engine, primary and secondary color correction, automatic scene detection, camera and color space matching, Adobe tool and workflow integration.

These are just a few highlights of what’s new in the toolset and there are many, many more.

If you want to know what’s different from CS6 going back to releases prior to last, check out comparisons of earlier versions of the Creative Suite, for example CS4 vs. CS5.5, or CS3 vs. CS5.5.

When Can You Get It?

So all this new software has been officially announced, but when will Creative Suite 6 be shipping?  Our checks indicate the release date will be in early May… We may find out more at the big Global CS6 Launch Event.

In the meantime you can register to download any of the free trials — or grab some chances to win Photoshop CS6 + Lightroom 4 for free!

Lastly, keep in mind you can usually save a good bit of money on CS6 when coming from older versions like CS2, CS3, or CS4 by upgrading now at lower cost to CS5.5, and then you’ll automatically receive a free further upgrade to CS6 when it comes out… Just look for “Can’t wait? Order the previous version now” at Adobe’s Online Store.

Related Posts

• CS5.5 or CS6? New Adobe “Sneak Peek” Preview Videos Out
• How to Move Adobe CS6 Between Computers, or from PC to Mac
• Buy CS5 Now + Get Free Upgrade to CS6: Adobe Sets Grace Period
• Adobe CS6 Upgrade Policy Changes Postponed! CS3 & CS4 on Track
• Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy for CS6: What It Means for You [Poll]

[UPDATE (May 7th) – Creative Suite 6 is now shipping!]

This morning Adobe opened an official “grace period” for free upgrades to Creative Suite 6 for anyone who purchases the current Creative Suite software version today (full or upgrade), and for the next six weeks. This is a “first” for the company – formalizing and announcing a complimentary upgrade offer in advance – and means that if you buy CS5.5 or CS5 now (depending on the application), you will receive a free upgrade to CS6 when it comes out, which can save you significant money…

This news follows on the heels of the release of the free public Photoshop CS6 beta version last week (download here) – and opens the door for owners of older versions of Creative Suite such as CS4, CS3, and even CS2 with a clear upgrade path to CS6 at today’s current prices. Adobe puts this plainly in the Offer FAQ:

“If you upgrade to or purchase CS5.5 today, you’ll be paying the current price, plus you’ll get CS6 at no additional cost.   If you wait until CS6 ships, you’ll pay the price to upgrade to CS6, which may be higher.”

This Upgrade Assurance promotion is valid largely worldwide* for all commercial, education, government, and volume customers, and is good for individual applications as well as suites. It includes most current CS products (but not all – Acrobat, Flash Catalyst, Flash Builder, Con­tribute, and OnLocation individual products are excluded – although suites containing them are covered).  The free upgrades are definitely included for all new orders of Photoshop CS5 and Illustrator CS5, and CS5.5 versions for all the rest.

The “grandfather” offer begins today and expires on May 6th, which could give somewhat of a confirmation on the expected CS6 shipping date… After all, it wouldn’t make much sense to stop the offer and flow of orders before the new version became available. Then, within ten days of the Creative Suite 6 release†, customers will receive an email with instructions and a unique coupon code to receive the one-time free upgrade (download version) to the equiva­lent CS6 product. Full CS6 product support and free updates/fixes are included, as with all purchases.

So the advantages here are threefold: (1) you get current software available for immediate download, (2) you will receive a more mature release if you prefer and can move up later at your leisure, and (3) you save money by winning a lower upgrade cost (e.g., from CS2, CS3, CS4, or CS5.0), because you’re buying fewer steps to go up.  For example, you’ll save almost 50%(!) by moving from CS5.0 Design Premium to CS5.5 today (with a gratis upgrade later), than to go from CS5 to CS6 after this offer expires… If you wait it will cost you more!

And with Adobe’s Three Versions Back Upgrade Policy, present owners of CS2 will not even be eligible to upgrade to CS6, except temporarily here via this offer while it lasts… So really this is the last chance to upgrade for anybody still running CS2 tools.

With this new Creative Suite Upgrade Assurance Program, you no longer need to worry about purchasing the latest version as you’ll receive a complimentary upgrade to CS6 upon release. You get tomorrow’s software at today’s prices, with the best of both worlds: buy or upgrade to CS5 to use now, and then later get a free update to CS6 when you—and it—are ready. To get Creative Suite 5, just look for “Can’t wait? Order the previous version now” when you order.

There are some specific terms for eligibility – so you might want to double-check the policy to make sure you’ll qualify…

If you want to try the software out for free first, no problem – you can download the Creative Suite 5 trial and then convert it to permanent by May 6th.

See also:

— Adobe: CS6 to Ship “Late in Q2″ with Very Compelling New Features

— Revealed! What’s New in CS6 for Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Audition

— Sneak Previews of CS6: Dreamweaver, InDesign, Flash Pro, Illustrator & Premiere

— Win New Photoshop CS6 + Lightroom 4 FREE! ($1000 Giveaway)

— What’s the Difference Between Photoshop CS6 vs. CS5 – What’s New in Features?

* Offer valid in the following stores:  Europe – Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK.  North America – U.S., Canada, and Mexico.  Elsewhere – Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

† Adobe customers will receive instructions by email no later than May 25, 2012, which will be sent to the email address you used for your qualifying order. The email will contain a unique coupon code that you’ll need to claim your complimentary upgrade by August 5, 2012.

Related Posts

• How to Move Adobe CS6 Between Computers, or from PC to Mac
• Adobe CS6 vs. CS5.5 Comparison – What’s the Difference Between?
• Adobe CS6 Upgrade Policy Changes Postponed! CS3 & CS4 on Track
• Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy for CS6: What It Means for You [Poll]
• Adobe Says No CS6 Upgrade Discounts from Older CS2, CS3, or CS4

[UPDATE – Also see our new Photoshop CS6 Giveaway!]

If you like Photoshop and want a free paid trip to Photoshop World plus a CS5.5 suite, check out Adobe’s Next Photoshop Evangelist contest…  All you have to do is create and upload a 1-2 minute video demonstrating your favorite “Hidden Gem” in Photoshop CS5.

What’s a hidden gem? Essentially, it’s just a lesser-known feature or workflow of the product that you find valuable – perhaps using a function or tool in a way that Adobe didn’t imagine… For some great examples, check out this helpful series of Photoshop Hidden Gems that Adobe produced.

Submit your video here »

The top 5 videos will be selected and voted on, with the winner receiving a $4,000-$6,000 prize package including a trip to the PSW Conference either in Washington, D.C. this spring, or in Las Vegas this fall – plus a full copy of CS5.5 Design Standard. The trip includes roundtrip airfare, lodging, event admission, and spending money – plus meeting Adobe’s Photoshop Product Team personally and the opportunity to demonstrate your hidden gem live at the show. Four runners-up will get a free $1,000 copy of Photoshop CS5 Extended.

It’s open to users 18 years or older in the USA, Canada, U.K, and Germany. No purchase is necessary to win – because if you need Photoshop CS5 to use for your entry, you can easily download the fully-working free trial for 30 days. You can submit as many original videos as you like, just be sure to mention the phrase “hidden gem” in each… For some ideas of what to talk about, see the list of new CS5 features for Photoshop (and all other products). Complete contest rules here.

The submission deadline is March 5th after which five finalists will be chosen by Adobe, and the grand prize winner will be selected by the Photoshop community on Facebook. All five finalists will be showcased by Adobe on several venues. So show off your Photoshop skills and sharing abilities and you could be on your way to Photoshop World this year with a new CS5 suite on your laptop and some fame to your name.

Enter here »

Related Posts

• Giveaway: Try Adobe CS5 for a Chance to Win It Free, or $10,000!
• Win Adobe Photoshop CS5, Free!
• New Giveaway! Win Photoshop CS6 + Lightroom 4 FREE ($1K Prizes)
• Adobe Photoshop Best Tips, Tricks, Techniques, Training & Tutorials
• New Adobe Photoshop Elements 10: Five Free Copies to Give Away!

Content Aware Fill is one of the major features added in Adobe Photoshop CS5, and is said to be one of its greatest new timesavers. CAF allows you to move or delete parts of your image and Photoshop will automatically and intelligently fill in the space left behind. We’ve written about it before with the quote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguish­able from magic.” [Arthur C. Clarke]

And in our shop here we save hours every month from using Content Aware Fill as well as other CS5 advancements like Puppet Warp and the improved edge/masking tools.

Yet we still see some people claiming that Content Aware Fill “doesn’t work,” “doesn’t give results like in the demo video,” “doesn’t use the right back­ground,” or is just hype, smoke-and-mirrors, or a “gimmick.”

It’s true that it doesn’t always work and of course has its limitations. You can’t synthesize brand new material or hidden content that doesn’t exist in some related form elsewhere in the image. And often it will require some retouching afterwards to get the final result you want.

But usually it will get you most of the way there very quickly – if you know the most effective ways to use the feature. The best is when it “just works” without doing anything special, and this happens often enough too…

Here is a quick before-and-after example that required doing nothing more than an item selection and a content-aware delete… and one could say that for (literally) a two-minute job, it borders on magic…  Just roll over with your mouse (or tap) for the before and after results:

So what are the tips for ensuring Photoshop’s Content Aware Fill works the way you want? Here are two video walkthroughs to help learn how to make it do your heavy lifting.

The first features Russell Brown showing several before and after examples – with the key technique being to make a tight selection of what you want to fill or remove, and then expanding your selection by 5-10 pixels all around… (use the Select menu > Modify > Expand… Expand Selection by X Pixels) Setting things up that way gives the CAF algorithm just the right amount information on what it should remove and what it should use to fill in the space, without getting things you don’t want or mixing in too much.

The second tutorial is from Terry White and shows how to use Layer Masks to exclude the part(s) of the image you don’t want Content Aware Fill to draw data from at all. Alternatively, you can do the inverse and use the same method to include only the areas you do want the tool to use when composing the filled space. And as the video title indicates – “What to Do When Content Aware Fill or Content Aware Scale Doesn’t Work” – he gives tips for using Photoshop’s Content Aware Scaling feature as well.

And of course if you then combine both of these techniques your results will be better still, and CAF will work as best as possible for you…  Sometimes it takes a little experimentation, and if the area to be filled is complex (or large), then break it up and do it in pieces instead – in other words, take smaller selections and fill them in one-by-one.

Here they are… and hopefully with the skills from these two videos in hand, you’ll get more satisfying – fast and timesaving – results from the latest version of Photoshop.

[Extra:  Watch Part 1 of Russell Brown's show.]

[UPDATE (February 1st) – And another third, quick new video from Photoshop Senior Product Manager Bryan O'Neil Hughes: Getting the Best Results with Content-Aware Fill.]

[UPDATE (February 14th) – Check out the sneak peek of Photoshop CS6 which contains new Content-Aware Move, Patch, and Extend tools!]

Download a free trial of Photoshop CS5 and try it out yourself!

Check out more of the best tutorials for Photoshop (any learning level or product version).

Watch other video demonstrations of more Content-Aware Fill tricks & techniques.

Related Posts

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• Advanced Magic with Photoshop CS5′s Content-Aware Fill

= BREAKING NEWS =

Two months ago Adobe made a major change in the Creative Suite upgrade policy that had been in place since CS3 came out in April 2007…

Had you heard about it? If not, here’s what they said on the new upgrade policy for CS6…
In a nutshell, Adobe said only customers running Creative Suite 5 products would be eligible for discounted upgrade pricing to the new CS6 when it comes out.

Customers spoke up and reaction to the change was pretty unfavorable across the web… Results from our own poll here showed a striking 90% against the move including the company’s related business model changes to the Creative Cloud.

And now, in a stunning turnabout, Adobe says they have been listening and are backing off the new policy, in response to customer feedback…

Yes, it’s true – and just as we were one of the first to break the original story, we’re back now with the good news that the older Creative Suite versions like CS3 and CS4 will indeed be able to get upgrade discounts to CS6 in the future.

Here it is from our Adobe Partner Update:

CS6 Upgrade Offer for CS3 and CS4 Customers

With these great new releases coming in 2012, we want to make sure our customers have plenty of time to discover which offering is best for them. Therefore, we’re pleased to announce that we will offer special introductory upgrade pricing on Creative Suite 6 to our customers who own CS3 or CS4.

This offer will be available from the time CS6 is released until December 31, 2012. More details on this offer, as well as any introductory offers for existing customers to move to Creative Cloud membership, will be announced when CS6 and Creative Cloud are released later this year.

In other words, Adobe will effectively be restoring their longstanding “three versions back” upgrade policy through the launch of CS6, until the end of this year…

You can read more details about the new policy here, under the section, “What is Adobe’s upgrade pricing policy?”  Note you will be able to purchase future CS products just like today, as perpetual (permanent) desktop licenses… They are not phasing those out in the slightest; the cloud is separate and strictly optional.

So, all you folks with CS3 or CS4 can now rest easy if your plans have been to upgrade to CS6 all along, as this will give you the chance to do it with lower prices as you had been expecting. For those customers now on CS5 or CS5.5, it should cost even less for you to upgrade to CS6 under Adobe’s Tiered Upgrade Pricing Policy, because you own a more recent version.

Note the company has not announced CS6 pricing for anybody yet, so at this point we don’t know these exact numbers and how different they’ll be from those for CS5, if at all.

But if you do get on board with CS6 later this year, then looking forward under the new policy starting in 2013, you’d have nearly four years to think about later upgrading from CS6 to CS7 down the line.

So it’s good to see that after all the discussion, Adobe listened – and rethought this policy in a way that gave enough notice and made more sense for customers.

Please spread the word and share this news with anyone who you think should know!

See also:

— Acrobat, Lightroom, and Elements: How Are They Affected By Creative Cloud?

— News: All CS6 Upgrades Now Only Available through Adobe Direct

— What’s the Difference Between Photoshop CS6 vs. CS5?

— What’s New in CS6: Premiere Pro, After Effects & Audition

— Win Adobe Photoshop CS6 + Lightroom 4 FREE! ($1000 Giveaway)

Related Posts

• Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy for CS6: What It Means for You [Poll]
• Adobe Says No CS6 Upgrade Discounts from Older CS2, CS3, or CS4
• Adobe Extends 20%-Off CS5.5 Upgrades Discount Offer to March
• What are the Differences between CS5.5 vs. CS5 vs. CS4 vs. CS3?
• How to Move Adobe CS6 Between Computers, or from PC to Mac

Adobe’s Creative Suite 5.5 has been out since May, and has generally been well-reviewed and even lauded as a must-have release…  Nevertheless, some folks are still looking for or require older versions of the software, like CS5.0 or CS4.  Why?

Two common reasons are the higher system requirements – 64-bit for some components of CS5 like After Effects & Premiere Pro, as well as cases where the rest of a customer’s site is still running an older version and would like to add a new setup with the same compatibility. And occasionally some folks say they prefer the earlier, simpler versions over newer ones with more features.

The challenge is, once a new release comes out, Adobe no longer officially sells the older version (with one exception). So if you need a prior release, what do you do?

If you want the trial version to use for 30 days, that’s easy – Adobe actually keeps most older original trials still available for download on their servers – including all of CS4 and CS5, plus earlier releases of Acrobat, Lightroom, Elements, etc… You can find those trials all linked for download here.

But how about when you want to actually buy CS4 or CS5?

If you ask Adobe, they’ll usually tell you to check their official list of authorized resellers & retailers to see if someone still has the version you want in stock. The problem is it’s inconvenient to search as often those stocks are thin or sold out, and no longer available.

So, do you turn to other random sources like eBay or Craigslist?  If you’re smart, definitely not – we strongly advise against eBay et al.  So what do you do?

The Solution: Order “Prior-Version Software”

Fortunately, there is an easy solution. It’s little-known, but Adobe actually sells a special type of license that can be “downgraded.” These unique products come from the Adobe Business Store (and are also known as volume licenses) – but you don’t have to be a business to get them, or even buy more than one copy, and they can be easily purchased online instantly with a credit card.

So these “business” licenses have this helpful capability which allows you to order the latest release (like CS5.5 or Acrobat X) but then optionally receive and use the prior version instead (like CS5.0 or CS4, or Acrobat 9).  Here it is spelled out:

Backward Licensing Policy
Adobe allows program members to order a current-version license but to use a prior version. These members can contact Adobe Customer Service to request a serial number for the earlier version if they do not already have one.

Prior-version software is available via Electronic Software Delivery [download from Adobe]. The program member must follow all guidelines of the current-version EULA.

Adobe has a name for this program (which again, anyone can buy from) – it’s called the Transactional Licensing Program (TLP) and it doesn’t cost extra – in fact customers typically get discounts off the regular price. And there are other nice features of these licenses as well, including the ability to run your software multi-platform on both Windows and Mac OS – which is also not possible elsewhere.

So if this is what you need to do now, then you may want to check this out.

Related Posts

• How to Install or Run Adobe CS6 on Both Windows PC and Mac OS
• How to Move Adobe CS6 Between Computers, or from PC to Mac
• How Many Computers Can You Install or Run Adobe CS6 On?
• Adobe CS6 Upgrade Policy Changes Postponed! CS3 & CS4 on Track
• Adobe Extends 20%-Off CS5.5 Upgrades Discount Offer to March

Adobe has just extended their popular current offer for all customers to save an additional 20% off the regularly-discounted upgrade price when you move up to CS5.5 (to either a suite or an individual product) from any earlier qualifying Adobe tool listed below.

This special was set to expire at year-end but has now been extended into March 2012 and continues to be available worldwide, with no coupon or promotion code required.  It’s valid for upgrading to all the latest CS5.5 versions, and also includes Photoshop CS5.1 and Illustrator CS5 as well.

The additional time comes following Adobe’s recent news of a major change in upgrade policy whereby only users with CS5.5 or CS5.0 would qualify for upgrade pricing to CS6 when it is released.

[UPDATE (February 13th) – Save 50%!  Half-price on full versions of CS5.5 Premium Suites or 15% off everything else with special coupon code...]

The new expiration dates for the additional 20% off upgrade savings are:

   North American Store:  Extended through March 15, 2012.
   European Stores:  Extended through 15 March 2012.
   Australia/NZ + Asia:  Extended through 15 March 2012.

So if you currently have one of these Adobe products with a valid license (either commercial or for education/student), then you qualify for this promotion:

• Creative Suite 4 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium, or Master Collection
• Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium, or Master Collection
• Creative Suite 2 Premium or Standard
• Adobe Production Studio Premium or Standard
• Adobe Design Bundle (Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium and Macromedia Flash Pro 8)
• Adobe Web Bundle (Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium and Macromedia Studio 8)
• Adobe Video Bundle (Adobe Production Studio Premium and Macromedia Flash Pro 8)
• Macromedia Studio 8
• After Effects CS4, CS3, or 7.0 (Professional or Standard)
• Flash CS4 Pro or Flash CS3 Pro, Macromedia Flash Pro 8, or Flash Basic 8
• Illustrator CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Audition CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Dreamweaver CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Fireworks CS4, CS3, or CS2
• InDesign CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Photoshop CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Photoshop CS4 Extended or CS3 Extended
• Premiere Pro CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Any version of Adobe Premiere

If you want to try out the product upgrade first, you can download the free trial for any software you choose, and then later convert the trial to a permanent version using this offer if you like. This works even for upgrades, which will run side-by-side with your other installed Adobe tools without difficulty.

This discount offer is available in the following Country Stores: USA, Canada, Mexico, UK, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand), China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Hope this news helps save you some money…

Read more about CS5.5

To receive future notification of special promotions and coupon codes like these, get on our free occasional Adobe Special Offers mailing list in the sidebar just up and to the right.

Related Posts

• Adobe Says No CS6 Upgrade Discounts from Older CS2, CS3, or CS4
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• Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy for CS6: What It Means for You [Poll]
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“What’s the difference between the different Photoshops?”

We’ve seen this question sooo many times, we just had to write a complete article about it.  With four different members of the Adobe Photoshop family, it can be confusing what is what and which to get…  And now that Photoshop Elements 10 has just been released, it’s a good time to look at this.

If you ask Adobe, they’ll tell you:

Q:  How do Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Extended, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop Lightroom software differ?

A:  Photoshop Elements 10 (US$99) is designed for people who are just getting started with digital photo editing, and delivers powerful yet easy-to-use options that help you organize, edit, create, share, and help protect your personal photos.

Photoshop CS5 (US$699, actually CS5.1) is the professional standard for creating and manipulating powerful images, and Photoshop CS5 Extended (US$999) delivers every­thing in Photoshop plus tools for creating and editing 3D and motion-based images.

Photoshop Lightroom 3 (US$299) addresses the workflow needs of professional and serious amateur photographers, enabling them to import, process, organize, and showcase large volumes of digital photographs quickly.

And indeed they do nicely summarize all the different versions on one page.

So that’s a good starting point, but let’s dig a little deeper. Here’s another way of looking at it, functionally:

• Photoshop CS5 – The latest-and-greatest “flagship” (or regular/standard) version of the breakthrough industry-standard tool – the world’s leading pixel manipulation program.
• Photoshop Elements 10 – A scaled-down, simpler version for hobbyists and home market, with fewer features, functions, and options – it offers “elements” of the full program.
• Photoshop Lightroom 3 – Not really “photoshop” or a pixel-level editor at all, but rather a non-destructive image workflow system for serious and pro photographers.
• Photoshop CS5 Extended – The “top of the line” with everything: it takes Photoshop CS5 and adds editing for both 3D and motion (video!) content, as well as image analysis.

That captures the essence, and we have in-depth comparisons below. But if just from reading that you’re unsure which one is right for you, Adobe offers free downloadable trial editions of all four editions which are fully-functional for 30 days. So you can get any one (or multiple, or all) for tryout to see which work(s) best.

But it’s not “either/or” – many folks actually end up buying two of these: Lightroom together with one of the CS5 editions (or Elements) – they are complementary and integrated to work well together, in fact Adobe offers a 30% discount when those products are purchased at the same time.

All four products are available for both Windows PC and Mac OS – and in fact all of them can be run on both platforms, with the ability to install on up to two computers for each tool. If you own a previous release of the same product, then you may qualify for the Upgrade version which costs less ($US79 for Elements, US$199 for Photoshop CS, and US$99 for Lightroom), otherwise you’d get the Full version.

Compare Photoshop CS5 vs. Photoshop CS5 Extended

OK, we’ve actually written a whole separate article on just that question – the differences between Photoshop vs. Photoshop Extended – so please see that related piece for more details there… 

Importantly, note that in almost all of Adobe’s suites, and in all of Adobe’s education versions for students & teachers, the edition of Photoshop is Extended.  That’s a good thing.

For the other three editions (Photoshop CS5 vs. Lightroom 3 vs. PSE 10):  What are some of the features in one version but not the other(s), or unique to each?

Compare Photoshop CS5 vs. Photoshop Elements 10

As mentioned earlier, most would say that Photoshop Elements 10 is a stripped-down version of the full Photoshop CS5 with significantly fewer features, options, and controls. On the other hand, PSE is targeted towards the consumer market and Adobe has designed it to be easier to get started with and learn to use.

There is a long list of features it does not contain as compared to the full Photoshop CS5. Here are a few that Photoshop CS has, but that Photoshop Elements does not have:

• Puppet Warp
• Pen Tool (vector drawing & selections)
• Content-Aware Fill
• 64-bit support (for performance)
• HDR Pro
• Paths Palette
• Vanishing Point Tool
• History Brush
• Curves
• Full 16-bit RGB
• Creating custom Actions (scripting)
• Full Layer Groups (Sets) and Styles
• Smart Objects, Filters, and Guides
• Color Balance and Match Color
• Channels Palette and Mixer
• Slice Tool (Web graphics)
• Automatic lens correction
• Warp Transform Tool
• 3D objects & text
• Pixel Bender plug-in
• CMYK and Lab color models
• Truer Edge detection technology
• Adjustments & controls for everything

That said, because Photoshop Elements is meant for home use, there are some features it contains that Photoshop CS5 does not have – for example, templates for photo books, slideshows, greeting cards, email, print calendars, scrapbook pages, and online albums, as well as drop-in frames, backgrounds, and artwork, plus online sharing options for Facebook, Flickr, etc.  Elements also offers more user assistance through aspects like Guided Edits and shortcuts like Quick Fix mode, the Smart Brush tool, and Cookie Cutter tool.

For keeping track of images, Photoshop Elements includes the Organizer to manage photos and videos, which is considered to be simpler but slower than the Bridge media browser that comes with Photoshop CS5. However, most users feel that Lightroom’s smooth library and cataloging functions are superior to both, and especially better and faster when you have a large number of images.

Note that for students and teachers, Adobe gives a much bigger discount on Photoshop Extended (80% off the regular price) than on Photoshop Elements (only 20% off).

Compare Photoshop CS5/Elements vs. Lightroom 3

So, how is Lightroom different from all of the above? Lightroom 3 an intuitive digital darkroom and efficient assistant designed for advanced amateur and professional photographers. LR3 lets you manage, edit, and showcase all your photographs – and do it quickly, powerfully, smoothly. It’s a complete photo and data management solution that was built from the ground up by Adobe to streamline workflow productivity for photographers.

Lightroom has the library and cataloging functions to work with a large collection of images easily and process them rapidly in groups or batches, with a sophisticated database for very fast search, keyword tagging, and previewing functions – even when your image files aren’t accessible on your computer. It has built-in RAW processing (also works with .JPEG, .TIFF, and .PSD images) and can make correc­tions based upon the camera and lenses you use.  LR has terrific tools for “developing” like correcting exposure, adjusting tone, lighting, white balance, contrast, color, saturation, sharpening, and noise reduction, which are state-of-the-art. There’s also a local adjustment brush for dodging and burning, graduated filters, and so on.

And all of it is nondestructive, meaning you can go back and simply undo or redo changes to any image at any time, even years later. This is much like film, where photographers can always return to their original negative – whereas in standard Photoshop, once you change and save an object, you permanently change the pixels.

Lightroom is not for performing detailed raster-level editing, creating images from scratch, compositing multiple images, using layers, cloning & healing, adding text (except for watermarking), drawing shapes, editing objects out of a photos, or many of the other capabilities Photoshop has.  However, many thousands of serious photographers use Lightroom very efficiently every day for 90% of their needs, and then pop out to tightly-integrated Photoshop for the rest (retouching and post-processing).

Lightroom is an end-to-end digital photography solution so it also includes features to showcase your work in customized print layouts, slide shows, and web galleries, and on popular photo-sharing sites.

So if you want the photographer’s workflow to manage thousands of images with ease then you’re talking about Lightroom, but you want to perfect a single image with the “gold standard” professional editing & finishing tool then you’re talking about Photoshop. The two products complement each other and together comprise a complete image processing system.

Adobe has an excellent FAQ on Lightroom and more on the differences between other tools.

This short video answers the question “What is Lightroom?” for new users of the product. Lightroom unites your digital photography essentials in one fast and intuitive package and gets you there with the tools you need to create great images, manage all your photographs, and showcase them with style and impact.

Adobe Camera Raw (ACR)

Interestingly, all products in the Photoshop family share the same underlying image processing technology to ensure consistent and compatible results across applications that support raw processing. This is called the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) plug-in and it’s packaged in with Photoshop CS, Photoshop Elements, and Lightroom. This is the interface where support for new camera models and lens profiles is added, so Adobe updates this plugin on a regular basis (about every 3-4 months).

You can get access down to the powerful ACR features from within Photoshop CS or Elements, while Lightroom essentially takes Camera Raw and centers a full-featured application around it with all the streamlined workflow and cataloging benefits described above.

Free Tutorials and Training

Learn how to use these tools!  As mentioned above, you can download a free trial of any or all of them to get started, and then:

• Best Free Photoshop Tips, Tricks, Techniques, Training & Tutorials
• 4 Hours of Free Video Tutorials for New Photoshop Elements 10 & 9
• Three Hours of Free Courses on Lightroom 3, plus Other Resources

Have any other questions about the differences between these Photoshop products?  Just ask them below and we’ll answer!

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